The Second Coming

he knew exactly what had to be done just as she had known what to do when he lay knocked out on her floor. I’d do anything he asks me, she thought, hoist anything. Why is that?
    â€œDo you have a calendar?” he asked.
    She gave him her Gulf card.
    He looked at it, looked up at her, smiled. (Smiled!) “Wrong year.” She shrugged. She was afraid to ask what year it was.
    â€œWhat is today?”
    â€œThe fifteenth.”
    â€œHm. It seems I’ve been gone two weeks.” His gray eyes met hers. She didn’t mind. “How much money do you have?”
    â€œOne hundred and eleven dollars and thirty-one cents.”
    â€œWhat are you going to do when your money runs out?”
    She shrugged. “Find employment.”
    â€œDoing what?”
    â€œHoisting maybe. Also gardening.”
    â€œHoisting? Hoisting what?”
    â€œAnything.”
    â€œI see. You wouldn’t consider my paying you something, or lending, until you get paid for your ah hoisting.”
    â€œHow much money do you have?” she asked.
    â€œOn me?”
    â€œOn you and off you.”
    â€œAbout fifty or sixty million.”
    â€œGollee.”
    â€œThat’s enough to employ you.”
    â€œNo, that would throw things off-balance and render my Sirius unserious.”
    â€œWhy shouldn’t I pay for my room and board?” he asked her.
    â€œTo give one reason if not others, you don’t have a dime. I had to go through your pockets before washing your clothes.”
    He laughed then winced and put a hand to his side. “I can get some.”
    â€œWhen you do, there will be time for a consideration of remuneration. The only thing in your pockets was a slip of paper which said Help! With tiger, fifty feet above. I was wondering about the nature of the tiger you were over and above.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter. Could you do the following things for me in town? Do you have pencil and paper?”
    She opened her notebook.
    â€œGo to Western Union, which is at the bus station, and send the following telegram to Dr. Sutter Vaught, 2203 Los Flores, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Send this message: Plans changed. Forget about letter. Read it if you like but tear it up. Don’t act on it. Will write. Barrett. Send it straight message.”
    â€œStraight message,” she repeated, hoping he would explain but he didn’t. Probably he meant send it straight to Albuquerque and not roundabout by way of Chicago. “Is that all?”
    â€œNo. Go to Dr. Vance Battle’s office. See him alone. Tell him I want to see him. Tell him where I am, tell him I want to see him today and ask him not to tell anybody or bring anybody with him.”
    â€œAnything else?”
    â€œGo by the library and get a book on hydroponic gardening.”
    â€œOkay.”
    â€œThen go behind the bus station and see if my car is still there. A silver Mercedes 450 SEL. My keys are under the seat. Drive it to the country-club parking lot. Park at the far end, which is nearest to here.”
    â€œOkay.” She swallowed. Very well. Drive a car? His car? Very well. If he asked her to drive the car, she could drive the car. “Okay. Why were you in the cave?”
    â€œWhat? Oh.” Now he was walking up and down the greenhouse not limping badly, shouldering, hands in pockets. Does he notice how clean and smooth the concrete is? She felt the floor with both hands; it was cool and iron-colored and silky as McWhorter’s driveway. She wished he would notice her concrete, the best-cured concrete in North Carolina. “I go down in caves sometimes,” she said. He told her about the tiger.
    â€œBut the tiger wasn’t there.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen—?”
    â€œThen what?”
    â€œThen there was more than the tiger?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou were trying to find out something besides the tiger.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI was asking a question to which I resolved to find a yes-or-no answer.”
    â€œDid you find the answer?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhich was it?”
    â€œI don’t know.”
    â€œSo you came back up and out.”
    â€œYes, I came back up and out.”
    â€œIs that good?”
    â€œGood?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. At least I know what I have to do. Don’t worry.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œAbout money. I’ll pay you back.”
    â€œI